alone in the office, and i'm pretty freaked out
the biggest reason why my mom wanted me to move to the states was for my own safety. she was terrified of the crime in manila, how dangerous it is to drive alone at night, or to walk alone anywhere at all, etc. I believed what she believed and so the states sort of became a safe haven for me where i can drive home alone at night alone at whatever time i want, i can walk alone to places, i can leave my house door unlocked occassionally, or leave my car keys in my car to run out and get something for just a short while. and i can trust that people will tell me i dropped a coin instead of taking it for themselves, blah blah.
but since i've been in the states, granted that it's been rare, i have witnessed/felt close to more crime here than my whole 20 years in the philippines. About a month ago, I was walking with some friends in downtown mountain view to our car. We get into the car, and all of a sudden hear a woman scream. I look out the fogged window, and I see this guy, sort of jogging away with something covering his face. Then we open our windows to see better and the woman frantically runs to our car and says "help me! i've been robbed!". words can't express how guilty we all were for not reacting sooner and at the same time, how scared we were because the woman was right behind us as we were walking. We could have easily caught the guy if we wanted to. at least he didn't assault her with a gun or knife. he assaulted her with a laser pointer. then i'm thinking, if a guy is poor enough to want to rob someone, how on earth did he come about a laser pointer? and let's stay he stole it, what on earth would push this man to choose a laser pointer as a weapon over something more tangible, more effective, more readily available, like a rock. anyway, it's a good thing he wasn't in his right mind and chose a laser pointer for the woman's sake. we helped her call the police, and in the end they caught the guy because he robbed another chick about 3 blocks down. must've stared at the laser pointer one too many times.
second encounter happened just yesterday. i actually wasn't there to witness it, and i know it sounds obnoxious but i can't help but think if i was there at the time it happened, it wouldn't have happened at all. apparently, my replacement's bag got stolen, in broad daylight, while she and another co-worker were still in the office. they both didn't pay attention to the front desk (which is really a hard thing to do considering our office is just one big square with no walls or anything blocking sight) and somebody walked in, noticed nobody was paying attention and just swiped the bag nice and easy. how does that happen? so now i'm all alone, and i'm seriously contemplating locking the door. i better make sure i have a laser pointer on hand in case anybody decides to steal in our office again. why, though, do i think it wouldn't have happened had i been there? i have a clear view of the front area with my desk and always jump to my feet when someone comes in. only cause i surf the i-net a lot and if that were my boss coming in, i would need to minimize windows pretty quickly.
my two "crime encounters". i have never experienced a robbery in the philippines, i have never seen anyone get robbed, or heard of awful situations close to me where someone i knew got robbed. maybe my mom will let me go home now.
but since i've been in the states, granted that it's been rare, i have witnessed/felt close to more crime here than my whole 20 years in the philippines. About a month ago, I was walking with some friends in downtown mountain view to our car. We get into the car, and all of a sudden hear a woman scream. I look out the fogged window, and I see this guy, sort of jogging away with something covering his face. Then we open our windows to see better and the woman frantically runs to our car and says "help me! i've been robbed!". words can't express how guilty we all were for not reacting sooner and at the same time, how scared we were because the woman was right behind us as we were walking. We could have easily caught the guy if we wanted to. at least he didn't assault her with a gun or knife. he assaulted her with a laser pointer. then i'm thinking, if a guy is poor enough to want to rob someone, how on earth did he come about a laser pointer? and let's stay he stole it, what on earth would push this man to choose a laser pointer as a weapon over something more tangible, more effective, more readily available, like a rock. anyway, it's a good thing he wasn't in his right mind and chose a laser pointer for the woman's sake. we helped her call the police, and in the end they caught the guy because he robbed another chick about 3 blocks down. must've stared at the laser pointer one too many times.
second encounter happened just yesterday. i actually wasn't there to witness it, and i know it sounds obnoxious but i can't help but think if i was there at the time it happened, it wouldn't have happened at all. apparently, my replacement's bag got stolen, in broad daylight, while she and another co-worker were still in the office. they both didn't pay attention to the front desk (which is really a hard thing to do considering our office is just one big square with no walls or anything blocking sight) and somebody walked in, noticed nobody was paying attention and just swiped the bag nice and easy. how does that happen? so now i'm all alone, and i'm seriously contemplating locking the door. i better make sure i have a laser pointer on hand in case anybody decides to steal in our office again. why, though, do i think it wouldn't have happened had i been there? i have a clear view of the front area with my desk and always jump to my feet when someone comes in. only cause i surf the i-net a lot and if that were my boss coming in, i would need to minimize windows pretty quickly.
my two "crime encounters". i have never experienced a robbery in the philippines, i have never seen anyone get robbed, or heard of awful situations close to me where someone i knew got robbed. maybe my mom will let me go home now.